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Dora Mohini Maya Das (born about 1884) was an Indian educator and speaker. She was the YWCA's associate general secretary for India, Burma, and Ceylon.
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Dora Mohini Maya Das (born about 1884) was an Indian educator and speaker. She was the YWCA's associate general secretary for India, Burma, and Ceylon.
Dora Mohini Maya Das was from Firozpur, [1] born to Christian Indian parents, Rai Bahadur Maya Das [2] and Mohini Chandulal. [3] [4] One of her sisters was Constance Prem Nath Dass (1886-1971), a college president in India. [5] [6] Another sister, Gunwati (Gertrude) Maya Das, married Raja Maharaj Singh, the first Indian Governor of Bombay, in 1918. [4]
Mohini Maya Das was one of the first three women enrolled in the Forman Christian College at Lahore. She attended the Northfield School for Girls in Massachusetts, [7] and was the first Indian student to attend Mount Holyoke College, when she arrived in 1906. She earned a bachelor's degree there in 1909. [8] While at Mount Holyoke, she was known as Dora Maya Das, and wrote for student publications. [9] [10] A play by Mohini Maya Das, "The Hindu Wife of Ram Lal", was performed by the Mount Holyoke Dramatic Club in 1909. [7] After her graduation, the Maya Das Club of the YWCA in Westfield, New York was named in her honor. [11]
Mohini Maya Das (she preferred her Indian personal name to the English name Dora) was the associate general secretary of the YWCA for India, Burma, and Ceylon from 1920 to 1923, [12] and a vice chairman of the General Committee of the World Student Christian Federation from 1922 to 1923. [13] In the latter role, she addressed the World Student Christian Federation conference in Beijing in 1922. [14] [15]
Maya Das was critical of white Westerners working in India, including the YWCA, by the time she spoke in Beijing in 1922. [16] "Has the country of religious mysticism nothing for you? Is the East just a market for your goods, just a place to exploit the people? Has it nothing to give you, something you can only find if you endeavor to understand it?" she asked in her lecture. "I beg of you from the West to try to understand us in the East, not in a cursory way but with true knowledge." [17]
She met with Mohandas K. Gandhi on the place of women's work in an independent India, though she could not endorse his strategy of non-cooperation. She took an interest in the Social Service League of Calcutta, and in a summer institute for rural women workers. [8] She served on the executive committee of India's National Christian Council until she resigned at the end of 1923, to marry. [18]
Mohini Maya Das married J. N. Dass in early 1924. [12] She continued to write and lecture on religious topics into the 1930s. [19]
The three Round Table Conferences of 1930–1932 were a series of peace conferences organized by the British Government and Indian political personalities to discuss constitutional reforms in India. These started in November 1930 and ended in December 1932. They were conducted as per the recommendation of Muhammad Ali Jinnah to Viceroy Lord Irwin and Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, and by the report submitted by the Simon Commission in May 1930. Demands for Swaraj or self-rule in India had been growing increasingly strong. B. R. Ambedkar, Jinnah, Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, V. S. Srinivasa Sastri, Sir Muhammad Zafrulla Khan, K. T. Paul and Mirabehn were key participants from India. By the 1930s, many British politicians believed that India needed to move towards dominion status. However, there were significant disagreements between the Indian and the British political parties that the Conferences would not resolve. The key topic was about constitution and India which was mainly discussed in that conference. There were three Round Table Conferences from 1930 to 1932.
Prem Nath Malhotra, better known as Prem Nath, was an Indian actor and director, who was best known for his works in Hindi films. Nath made his debut with the film Ajit (1948), and went on to appear in over 100 films throughout his career. He was nominated for three Filmfare Awards, and later retired in 1985.
Das is a common last name in South Asia, among adherents of Hinduism and Sikhism, as well as those who converted to Islam or Christianity. It is a derived from the Sanskrit word Dasa meaning servant, devotee, or votary. "Das" may be inferred to be one who has surrendered to God. The surname is often used by those in the Vaishnav community.
Dass may refer to:
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Constance Prem Nath Dass was an Indian educator and college administrator. She was president of Isabella Thoburn College, a women's college in Lucknow, which made her the first Indian woman to serve as the principal of a Christian college in India.
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Dorothy Noel 'Dorf' Bonarjee (1894–1983) was an Indian poet and artist who was known for being awarded a Bardic chair while a student in Wales and for being the first woman internal student to be awarded a law degree by University College London. The first collection of her poetry was published in 2023, more than a century after it was written.
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